Brooks Laich hadn’t scored since January 7. Since then the $4.5 million a year player had been a healthy scratch and now a fourth liner. That bottom line, though, is filled with rejected top-sixers rather than talentless scrubs — one member of the Sabres organization quipped that it was better than Buffalo’s first line. On Saturday night, that line — Laich, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson — added Washington’s fourth tally of the night, Laich’s first goal in two months.

“I sort of flashed back to the first goal I ever scored in the NHL,” Laich told reporters after the game. “It was in Montreal and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I got back to the bench and Glen Hanlon he says ‘congratulations.’ I was like ‘dude, I can’t stop smiling.’ He was like ‘good, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’ This one sort of felt like that.”

It started when Wilson picked off a Buffalo clearing pass midway through the second, then fed in into front to Laich, who fired off a wrist shot from the slot.

Once Laich tallied his first goal in more than two months, Wilson delivered an extended monologue into Laich’s ear as the celebratory scrum formed.

“I don’t even know, man,” Laich responded when asked what Wilson said to him. “I just blanked out and enjoyed the moment.”

Wilson, however, was clear about what transpired.

“I grabbed the monkey off his back and threw him into the 300s, I think,” he told me. “Hopefully he won’t be back anytime soon. It’s definitely a weight off Brooksy’s shoulders.”

Laich’s goal also came with his girlfriend Julianne Hough in attendance, who seemed rather pleased.

“It means a little extra boost,” Wilson said. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself and it’s good for him to get rid of that.”

This season, however, has been poor for 31-year-old Laich, who has just 15 points in 50 games. His cap hit is set to remain on the books until the end of the 2016-17 season. The two month drought only made Laich’s frustration this year more acute.

“It was just difficult,” Laich said. “You lose some sleep at night. I want to thank the coaching staff, the trainers, my teammates especially — the guys stuck with me, helped me through a lot. I have a lot of appreciation for what the guys that around me did for me. Outside the game, my family and my friends and really my girlfriend was a big influence as well. It’s nice to have a smile again. It’s really nice to breathe and have a smile, but appreciate everyone that’s been around me. Something I kept telling myself was, ‘tough times don’t last, but tough people do.’ It was a couple dark days, but hopefully back to the sun now.”

Brooks Laich and Julianne Houghhave been dating for a little over a year, and it seems to be going well despite it being a long-distance relationship– with Hough in Los Angeles and Laich in northern Virginia. Opposite coasts!

On Saturday, the couple, which I will refer to as Broolianne for the rest of this post, got to spend time together during Valentine’s Day– just because the NHL’s schedule-maker was kind to them.

During the day, Laich spent time at Hough’s home, and Broolianne took some lovely pictures for social media.

Capitals forward Brooks Laich had to run an errand in Arlington today. And he had two special helpers for his journey: Julianne Hough’s adorable dogs Harley and Lexi. This photo is notable because it appears the dogs might have helped Brooksie push the pedals and steer the vehicle. And that’s funny because hahaha c’mon, silly, dogs can’t drive cars!

One of the best parts of the Caps family skate Wednesday was when the NHL Network aired Brooks Laich skating with Hollywood girlfriend Julianne Hough. The couple held hands and giggled the entire time. They look positively blissful together. The honeymoon phase times 10.

At the end of the skate, the NHL Network caught up with Laich and Hough for what I believe was their first interview together.

“I’m learning something here from her,” Laich said. “She’s a better skater than I am a dancer. She’s great. It transfers very naturally for her. She’s very, very athletic. The balance is great for her.”

Laich continued, “Some of the guys were razzing us and were like, ‘Are you guys going to do a routine?’ I said, ‘Yeah just wait. You’ll hear the music cue up and then get off the ice.'”

The razzing and pranking didn’t stop there. As Laich held up Hough in his arms to show off her new skates, Tom Wilson, a notorious prankster and jokester, skated up from behind and pulled Laich’s winter cap over his eyes.

In amazing Caps-related holiday news, Russians Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov have decided to dress up as The Three Musketeers for Halloween. I’m sure this is because they’ve all been inspired by the brilliant Alexandre Dumas novel and not because this was the easiest trio-themed costume they could find at their local Party City.

There must be a Caps party tonight because Brooks Laich and his beautiful girlfriend Julianne Hough dressed up as Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell.

@brookslaich showing my little studs how to filet the fish that Bronson just caught! 6yrs old and first time fishing this trip, Bronson caught this northern pike all by himself!! Wahoo!! And then there is Quaid giving Brooks some moral support with his cute little hand on his back! I love Coeur d’Alene more than anything… And it’s even better with family! #hough #laich #family #love #nephews #fishermen #men #home #teacher #childhood

Yes hashtag men says it all.

Delving even further into Laich’s life, I have two further updates: his parents’ just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary which is awesome.

Happy 40th anniversary to my mom and dad, the best parents a kid could ever hope for, thank you and congratulations! pic.twitter.com/kgQPyHlOO0

We do not care about that. We care about Hough watching the Caps play at Verizon Center on Tuesday night (well, maybe we care; I guess this is debatable). I assume she was there to support her injured boyfriend, Brooks Laich, who recently went under the knife to repair his injured groin.

Editors’ note: No, we won’t be writing endless stories about the Brooks Laich-Julianne Hough (Brough? Broolianne?) romance, but we hope you’ll agree that it’s notable how the international celebrity press has turned its gaze towards a usually shy Caps player.

When paparazzi photos first surfaced of Brooks Laich, the Caps’ resident heartthrob, with Julianne Hough, As Seen on TV, the initial reaction was something along the lines of lol how. In his weekly hit with 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies, Brooks tried to alleviate your lol hows.

“To be honest, I had never seen an episode of Dancing With The Stars,” Laich said in an somewhat awkward interview with the station, referring to Julianne’s role on the program. “But in my defense, she had never seen a Caps game either until she met Teddy.”

“Teddy” is Teddy Sears, an actor who, somehow, is even more handsome than Laich. He’s also a big Caps fan and a friend of Laich’s.

“On set, apparently, he was talking with Julianne, and said he had recently just got married, just got back from his honeymoon, and then asked her if she’d been seeing anyone, and she said no or whatever, and I guess he was watching our hockey game at the time,” Laich, 30, told the Junkies.

“He always watches the game on GameCenter on his iPad,” he added. “I guess he just showed her the iPad and said, ‘Well I’ve got a guy for you,’ or something. I guess that was how it sorta started.”

Laich didn’t meet Julianne until December, when she came to DC for a wedding reception hosted by Sears and his wife Melissa.

“He kept mentioning her name, mentioning her name, and eventually we connected,” Laich said.

The budding relationship brings new experiences for Laich. For example, outside of a few girls on Tumblr, Brooks doesn’t have the star power of Hough, 25. When he visited her in LA over the Olympic break, the couple was incessantly followed by paps as they did riveting things such as walking, walking, and walking. Those photos are the only reason we know about the relationship.

“That was a new experience for me,” said Laich. “[T]hose guys are relentless.”

“We’re just driving through town and they’re swerving in and out of traffic trying to follow you,” he added. “We just went for a hike the one day and they’re running through the leaves and the bushes, and it’s like ‘Oh, these guys are working hard. But, whatever, you look at it positively like ‘Oh, we’ve got someone to photograph our little trip here. Great!’”

The hosts then moved on to what happens next. They suggested offering her a pair of tickets when the Caps visit the Ducks and Kings next month.

“A pair of tickets?” Laich yelled. “Who’s she bringing? She bringing a date?”